First Look: Synology DSM 6.0 Beta

The Home Screen on the Synology DSM 6.0 Beta software as seen through a web browser.

The first Synology DSM 6.0 beta came out today, and I am excited about what I see. In this blog post, I will provide some introductory comments, describe my updating process, and highlight two improvements that I’ve noticed with Cloud Sync.

Introductory CommentsHere at Develop CENTS, I am extremely familiar with Synology devices, we are certified with Synology, and no other reseller company is listed on Synology’s “Where to buy” page for the state of Tennessee.

Updating was a breeze…IMPORTANT NOTE: DSM 6.0 is still in beta, and it is not recommended to use the software in a production environment. Update at your own risk!

Updating the core software was extremely easy. I first downloaded the .pat file from https://www.synology.com/en-us/dsm/6.0beta/ReleaseNote, and then opened my NAS through a web browser, browsed to Control Panel -> Update & Restore, and manually uploaded the new software.

10 minutes later, my Synology NAS was running 6.0 beta.

1 Minor Problem with Cloud Sync (easily resolved)After I updated to 6.0 beta, I then navigated into the package center, where I (understandably) had to update all of the packages so that they would be compatible with the beta software. All of the packages updated successfully, but Cloud Sync refused to run.

Here’s how I fixed it: I completely uninstalled the package and installed it again, at which point, I successfully setup my sync with my Google Drive and my Dropbox accounts (I sync different files and folders into different cloud providers for a reason).

Same look and feel…The first thing I noticed was that the home screen has a slightly darker colored background. However, as I would expect, the DSM 6.0 beta update has the same layout and “feel” to it. When I access the NAS through a web browser, I see familiar looking icons, the Main Menu functions the same, as does the Package Center, Control Panel and other core applications.

Cloud Sync ImprovementsThere’s two improvements I will highlight with Cloud Sync, and I will briefly touch on another improvement I noticed with Synology’s High Availability feature.

Cloud Sync has some great changes:

You can now sync multiple folders under 1 account. This is a huge improvement, as it used to be that you could only sync a single local folder on the NAS under an account. (If I wanted to sync multiple local folders, I had to sync each folder to a separate cloud provider).

You can now sync a local Shared Folder into a sub directory on a cloud provider. This means that if I have a folder (let’s call it ‘local’), I no longer have to sync ‘local’ into the “root directory” of my cloud provider. I can now choose a folder on my cloud provider’s service in which to upload all of my local contents. This is hugely important to me, because now I can better organize my files and folders remotely.

High Availability is easier to use!

Synology HA on DSM 5.2 and earlier require a direct connection between 2 Synology NAS devices for High Availability to work. Even using a switch isn’t an option.

In DSM 6, this changes. The official recommendation is still to use a direct connection (if possible). However, it is not possible to use a switch to make the connection between the two devices.

I’m excited to continue to test with the new DSM 6 software and learn what else has improved. Have you already updated your Synology NAS? What are some of your favorite changes?